Thursday, February 24th, at 7pm ET, ISSUE is pleased to host an intimate conversation with pioneering experimental composer Morton Subotnick. In March, 2022, ISSUE will premiere the final version of “As I Live & Breath” at Abrons Arts Center, a piece Subotnick has described as having “a fitting title since, at 88, it may be my last appearance on the road.” Subotnick’s influence on electronic music cannot be overstated. The composer was a key innovator in experimental works involving synthesis, instruments, and other media including interactive computer music systems.
Morton Subotnick’s studio at New York University in the late 1960s was legendary for its influence on the production of electronic music throughout the 20th century. Equipped with a Buchla modular synthesizer and often hosting artists-in-residence and future legends of the avant-garde such as Éliane Radigue, Laurie Spiegel & Rhys Chatham, the studio provided a nurturing environment for a cadre of pioneering composers.
NYU’s Manhattan campus currently houses the Buchla 200e and 100 synthesizers. The latter is the original Buchla modular synthesizer, originally commissioned by Morton Subotnick and Ramon Sender and funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. ISSUE is thrilled to welcome Mort to discuss his legacy and work and provide a demonstration with his original synthesizers. The conversation and Q&A will be moderated by artist and ISSUE Board Chair R. Luke DuBois.
Members can RSVP for this event using their Member Code. For more information please contact Corinne Daniel, Development Director, at corinne@issueprojectroom.org. ISSUE Members directly support artists and ISSUE’s ongoing programming initiatives and commissions during this challenging time for performing arts.
Morton Subotnick is one of the pioneers in the development of electronic music and an innovator in works involving instruments and other media, including interactive computer music systems. His landmark record Silver Apples of the Moon (1966-67), commissioned by Nonesuch Records, marked the first time an original large-scale composition had been created specifically for the disc medium—a conscious acknowledgment that the home stereo system constituted a present-day form of chamber music. It has become a modern classic and was recently entered into the National Register of Recorded Works at the Library of Congress. Only 300 recordings throughout the entire history of recorded music have been chosen.
In the early 60s, Subotnick taught at Mills College and with Ramon Sender, co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center. During this period he collaborated with Anna Halprin in two works (the 3 legged stool and Parades and Changes) and was music director of the Actors Workshop. It was also during this period that Subotnick worked with Don Buchla on what may have been the first analog synthesizer (now at the Library of Congress). In 1966 Subotnick was instrumental in getting a Rockefeller Grant to join the Tape Center with the Mills Chamber Players (at Mills College with performers Nate Rubin, violin; Bonnie Hampton, cello; Naomi Sparrow, piano and Subotnick, clarinet). The grant required that the Tape Center relocate to a host institution that became Mills College. Subotnick, however, did not stay with the move, but went to NY with the Actor’s Workshop to become the first music director of the Lincoln Center Rep Company in the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center. He became an artist in residence at the newly formed Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. The School of the Arts provided him with a studio and a Buchla Synthesizer. During this period he helped develop and became artistic director of the Electric Circus and the Electric Ear. This was also the time of the creation of Silver Apples of the Moon, The Wild Bull and Touch. In 1969, Subotnick was invited to be part of a team of artists to move to Los Angeles to plan a new school of the arts. With Mel Powell as Dean, and Subotnick as Associate Dean, and a team of four other pairs of artists, he carved out a new path of music education and created the now famous California Institute of the Arts. Subotnick remained Associate Dean of the music school for four years and then, resigning as Associate Dean, became the head of the composition program where, a few years later, he created a new media program that introduced interactive technology and multimedia into the curriculum.
Subotnick has toured extensively throughout the U.S. and Europe as a lecturer and composer/performer. Among Subotnick’s awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, Rockefeller Grants (3), Meet the Composer (2), American Academy of Arts and Letters Composer Award, Brandies Award, Deutcher Akademisher Austauschdienst Kunsterprogramm (DAAD), Composer in Residence in Berlin, Lifetime Achievement Award (SEAMUS at Dartmouth), ASCAP: John Cage Award, ACO: Lifetime Achievement, Honorary Doctorate from the California Institute of the Arts. Subotnick last performed at ISSUE Project Room, in collaboration with Lillevan, as part of ISSUE's 2016 After 9 Evenings, a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering (1966).
R. Luke DuBois is a composer, artist, and performer who explores the temporal, verbal, and visual structures of cultural and personal ephemera. He holds a doctorate in music composition from Columbia University, and has lectured and taught worldwide on interactive sound and video performance. He has collaborated on interactive performance, installation, and music production work with many artists and organizations including Toni Dove, Todd Reynolds, Chris Mann, Bora Yoon, Michael Joaquin Grey, Matthew Ritchie, Elliott Sharp, Michael Gordon, Maya Lin, Bang on a Can, Engine 27, Harvestworks, and LEMUR, and was the director of the Princeton Laptop Orchestra for its 2007 season.
DuBois has lived for the last twenty-eight years in New York City. He is the co-chair of the department of Technology, Culture, and Society and research director of the programs in Integrated Design & Media at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering, and a founding co-director of the NYU Ability Project, where his research focuses on integrative systems for equity, ranging from open source software projects for signal processing to tele-present communication systems for motion capture to citizen science for noise pollution to design for disability. He is on the Board of Directors of the ISSUE Project Room, where he has acted as Board Chair since 2018, and Eyebeam. His records are available on Caipirinha/Sire, Liquid Sky, C74, and Cantaloupe Music. His artwork is represented by bitforms gallery in New York City.
